As a pastor in Memphis twenty-something years ago, one day I picked up a national Catholic publication and read a talk by the Bishop of Yakima, Francis George. I cannot recall the topic, but I do recall my reaction. Here was a clear voice, a voice I wanted to listen to, a pastor who helped me understand the faith and taught me how to teach it. From that point on, whenever I noticed Bishop George’s name associated with a talk or an article, I read it. I was never disappointed.
Years later, a bishop myself, I heard the voice speak in person, and I found the same clarity, the same creativity, the same natural interplay of faith and reason, the same challenge to discipleship I had perceived in his written word. And I noticed something else: Cardinal George spoke not only from prepared texts but also frequently off the cuff, spontaneously from the heart, in an understated, almost under-his-breath, manner. And I learned that such “after-thoughts” were just as insightful as his written texts. They welled up from within, unrehearsed, and gave a glimpse of the fullness that was his interior life. In a certain sense, he couldn’t not put these afterthoughts to words (although perhaps he wished, from time to time, that he hadn’t!), because they were so much a part of him, from the tips of his toes to the top of his head.
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